Editing
Oporta
Editing is like sculpting
The Rough-Cut phase is like taking your
favorite chisel and eliminating the rock
we don’t need. We don’t worry about
the fine details and the polish to
complete the statue.
That stage will come later on. For now
the goal is to take your statue from a
chunk of stone to something that begins
to resemble your final piece.
Two Types of Editing
• Editing: is the process of selceting the
good portions of raw video footage and
combing tem into a coherent sequential
and complete story.
• Linear : The content must be accessed
sequentially.
• Non Linear: The content may be
accessed from any point.
Examples
• Linear: Film, before digitization, VHS,
Beta Max.
• Non Linear: Current.
What do we do first?
• Review our RAW footage.
• The reason we do this…
• There are several different ways to tell a
story. Going just beginning to end may
not work.
• Make an edit log.
Activity
Transitions
• The shot is defined by editing but
editing also works to join shots together.
Cheat Cut
• Cheat cut. In the continuity editing
system, a cut which purports to show
continuous time and space from shot to
shot but which actually mismatches the
position of figures or objects in the
scene.
Cross Cutting
• Editing that alternates shots of two or
more lines of action occurring in
different places, usually simultaneously.
The two actions are therefore linked,
associating the characters from both
lines of action.
Cut in, Cut away
• An instantaneous shift from a distant
framing to a closer view of some portion
fo the same space, and vice versa.
Dissolve
• A transition between two shots during which
the first image gradually disappears while the
second image gradually appears; for a
moment the two images blend in
superimposition. Dissolves can be used as a
fairly straighforward editing device to link any
two scenes, or in more creative ways, for
instance to suggest hallucinatory states.
IRIS
• A round, moving mask that can close
down to end a scene (iris-out) or
emphasize a detail, or it can open to
begin a scene (iris-in) or to reveal more
space around a detail.
Jump Cut
• An elliptical cut that appears to be an
interruption of a single shot. Either the
figures seem to change instantly against
a constant background, or the
background changes instantly while the
figures remain constant
Shot/Reverse Shot
• Two or more shots edited together that
alternate characters, typically in a
conversation situation.
WIPE
A transition between shots in which a line
passes across the screen, eliminating
the first shot as it goes and replacing it
with the next one.
Eyeline Match
• A cut obeying the axis of action
principle, in which the first shot shows a
person off in one direction and the
second shows a nearby space
containing what he or she sees.
Match on Action
• A cut which splices two different views
of the same action together at the same
moment in the movement, making it
seem to continue uninterrupted.
Long Take
• Normally using a steady cam normally
used to show a whole area.
Overlapping Editing
• Cuts that repeat part or all of an action,
thus expanding its viewing time and plot
duration.
Rythm
• The percieved rate and regularity of
sounds series of shots, and movements
within the shots.
Montages
• A series of different shots to show the
passage of time.
Relations in Editing
There are five areas of choice and
control in editing, based on five types
of relationships between shots:
Graphic Relations
Rhythmic Relations
Temporal Relations
Spatial Relations
Thematic Relations
Graphic Relations
Although the primary focus of the film
editor is to ensure continuity of the
narrative, film editors remain acutely
aware that film is a visual art. Therefore,
they work to achieve visual interest by
creating transitions between shots that
are graphically similar and graphically
dissimilar, depending on the desired
effect.
Graphic Continuity
• A graphic match is achieved by joining
two shots that have a similarity in terms
of light/dark, line or shape, volume or
depth, movement or stasis.
• A graphically discontinuous edit
creates a clash of visual content by
joining two shots that are dissimilar in
terms of one or more of the above
visual principles.
Graphic Match
Graphic Discontinuity
Rhythmic Relations
Film is not only a visual art, but also an
auditory and even tactile art. Therefore,
editors also remain aware of the effects
achieved by manipulating the rhythms
experienced by perceivers through
thoughtful juxtapositions of longer and
shorter shots as well as through
transitional devices that affect the
perceiver’s sense of beat or tempo.
Temporal Relations
Editing is the process by which the
difference between temporal duration
and screen duration is reconciled. It
sounds simple, but consider this: most
feature films present in roughly two
hours sufficient intersection of story and
plot to provide perceivers with
everything they need in order to
understand days, weeks, months or
even years in characters’ lives.
Temporal Relations:
Chronology
• Most narrative films are presented in
roughly chronological order, with
notable exceptions (Memento, anyone?)
• The two most common disruptions to
chronological order are flashbacks (a
leap to an earlier moment) and
flashforwards (a leap into the future) the former is much more typical than the
latter).
Temporal Relations:
The Passage of Time
• To speed up time, editors make use of elliptical
editing techniques such as
Transitional devices
Empty frames - figure walks out of the frame
in Shot A and then into the frame in Shot B
Cutaway shots – cut from a scene to another
scene that takes less time, and then back
• To slow down time, editors make use of
expansion editing techniques such as
Overlapping – end of Shot A is identical to
beginning of Shot B
Repetition – multiple views of a single shot
Elliptical Editing
(Hyperlink)
Expansion Editing
(Hyperlink)
Spatial Relations
Perhaps the most important, as well as
the most overlooked, principle of editing
is its function in providing perceivers a
reliable sense of the physical space that
constitutes the world of the film. Editors
are responsible (with assistance from
cinematographers) for relating points
in space in order to achieve narrative
continuity.
•
Spatial
Continuity
The standard pattern for editing a scene in
a narrative film includes the following:
 Establishing shot – shows the characters in
relation to each other
 Shot/Reverse-shot – shows each character,
one after the other, from over the other
character’s shoulder
 Eyeline match (POV shot) – shows what a
character is looking at
 Re-establishing shot – exactly what it sounds
like
Continuity Editing
(Hyperlink)
Spatial Continuity
•
More
Spatial
Concepts
Multiple camera technique – used for
difficult/expensive shots
• Axis of Action (180-degree line) – can’t
be violated without disorienting the
perceiver
• Match on Action – lines up the end of
action A and the beginning of action B
• The Kuleshov Effect – implies a spatial
relationship in the absence of an
establishing shot
Axis of Action
Thematic
Relations
Editors have at their disposal two very powerful
techniques for manipulating the perceiver’s place in
the hierarchy of knowledge, and therefore affecting
our thematic understanding of the film:
• Montage sequences – visual motifs,
communicate passage of time
• Crosscut editing – cutting back and forth
between two lines of action happening
simultaneously; greatly heightens
perceiver’s position in the hierarchy of
knowledge
Montage
(Hyperlink)
Crosscutting
(Hyperlink)